I was contacted recently by researcher Milagros Torrado, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, who has been looking into the myth of the evil eye in different cultures. He’d found my book and was interested in getting an Irish viewpoint, particularly as the book was aimed at younger readers. Balor of the Evil Eye is, of…
My agent has just informed me that the French editions of three of my novels will be released as ebooks. ‘Small-Minded Giants’ (under the title, ‘Liberté Surveillée’) , ‘Ancient Appetites’ (under the title ‘Voraces’) and ‘The Wisdom of Dead Men’ (don’t know what they’re calling it yet) are to go digital, courtesy of my French publisher, Mango Jeunesse. I…
Christmas is over, the snow is gone (but threatens to come back) and I face the New Year after a great holiday several pounds heavier and many euros lighter. It was a lovely couple of weeks, centred round the family and doing sod all, though it included watching far fewer films than usual, and no lie-ins worth talking about….
On Saturday, I was in the Ark in Temple Bar for Story Spark. The Ark is Ireland’s only theatre set up especially for children. I was doing a ‘talk’ with Joe O’Brien for kids aged 6 to 9 years old – though it ended up with both of us doing more arsing around than any serious talking. Joe suffered…
One of the most enjoyable parts of visiting schools is seeing the pupils take ideas and images from my books and do their own thing with them. I will often show up at a school to discover a whole wall covered in fantastic artwork, with young artists displaying their own interpretations of characters and events from my stories. That…
We’ve just come out of the cold snap, but I’ve heard reports on the radio that we could be heading right into another one this week. Some would say the weather we’ve just had is the the last thing we needed after all the crap that’s happened to our economy over the last year, and the crap that’s still…
The snow started falling while my family and I were in Wexford for Wexworlds Sci-Fi and Fantasy Festival. My events have been winding down as we head for Christmas, but since my last update, I had done an interview with Alan Stanford at 4FM and a visit to Gonzaga College in Ranelagh. Wexworlds was my last festival of the…
Okay, so you know how they say never have a new baby and move house at the same time? Well, I’d go one further than that. Absolutely never move house to a place that needs a thorough renovation, when your nation’s banks are in financial meltdown and have gone completely schizo, when you’ve just had a new baby and…
One of our roving Weird-Wide News reporters wandered into a big toyshop last week (you would think they had better things to do). But while pushing themselves around in a trolley, they spotted a whole wall of Armouron toys. I was amazed to hear they were finally out (nobody told me), but happy to see them on the shelves….
Last week, I joined a bunch of writers and illustrators to have a lunch with Children’s Laureate, Siobhan Parkinson. The location was Airfield in Dundrum, which has nothing to do with airplanes, but is in fact a farm in the suburbs of Dublin which has a small cafe/restaurant, a farm shop and a vintage car collection, among other things….